LOST IN KIEV: Parisian Post-Rock Outfit To Release Persona Full-Length Via Pelagic Records This April; New Video Now Playing At Ghost Cult

Parisian post-rock outfit LOST IN KIEV returns with their long-awaited third album and most astounding work to date, Persona. Set for release via their new label home of Pelagic Records April 26th, Persona is raw and driven, oozing with thick synth textures and a great sense of melancholy and drama. Persona sees LOST IN KIEV further expand their own idiosyncratic take on cinematic, contemporary post rock. “The main challenge with this record was how to write more direct and shorter post-rock tracks with the same intensity as our previous, longer compositions,” guitarist Maxime Ingrand explains, “and also finding the right balance between traditional post rock, the addition of synths and machines, and the texts for the film.” LOST IN KIEV have always been one of the few truly suggestive post rock bands: they do lack a vocalist, and yet their music is prosaic, cinematic, and deeply saturated with anecdotes, philosophical reflections and stories.

In advance of its release, Ghost Cult is pleased to debut LOST IN KIEV’s alluring video clip for Persona’s title track. Issues the drummer and director Yoann Vermeulen, “‘Persona’ evokes the creation of a new intelligent being, similar to ourselves, created by a robotics company. The human resemblance is so impressive that we can say that it is the ‘spark of a new world.’ The clip narrates the creation of this first being. A shot of space, the infinite, juxtaposed with images of microbiology reminiscent of the birth of life on Earth. Gradually, small objects begin to reveal the subject in more depth. Finally, a body emerges from a 3D printer. The universe is white, immaculate, like a technological fantasy. The video then turns into dark colors and reveals the sordid aspect of the business. The company logo that appears states ‘Make your future more human,’ an ironic slogan which is referenced on the track ‘Pygmalion.’ The shots multiply, and the rhythm accelerates and ends with a rewind of the genesis. The shot of space becomes interrupted by a glitch. This sequence is a mirror to the first scene that evokes the birth from the void (space). In the last shot, the CEO of the company is publicly revealing the successful creation of what is the spark of a new world.”

Written and conceptualized to be reflections on humanity in a fictional futuristic context where artificial intelligence is fully implemented into everyday life, Persona does not impose any sort of political or moral position on the topic. LOST IN KIEV creates fictional characters and lets them talk, breathe, cry, and live through intimate stories and cathartic experiences on a screen behind the band, while they perform live. Post rock has ever since its beginnings shown an affinity to the use of speech samples, and has borrowed voices from movies or speeches by celebrities like Iggy Pop as in Mogwai’s “Punk Rock“ or random lost souls as in GY!BE’s “Blaise Bailey Finnegan III.” LOST IN KIEV takes this tradition to the next level, by writing their own genuine storyline, and making their own movie to their album. Ever since 2016’s Nuit Noir, the band has recorded their own spoken words, as opposed to plagiarizing from movies. During their live performances, these voiceovers are synchronized with video projections showing actors who interpret the different voices on screen. An inverted soundtrack of sorts, or musical fiction, always tinged with realism in a striking and emotionally intense way. Fans of Mogwai, 65 Days Of Static, Pg.Lost, Cult Of Luna, This Will Destroy You, Explosions In The Sky, Maybeshewill, Meniscus, and soundtrack music, pay heed.